Mechanical systems in which torque is transmitted from a drive shaft, for example a tapered crankshaft having a relatively high angular speed of rotation, to a rotatable component, such as a stamped flywheel, usually require a hub connection which is permanently attached to the rotatable component. The hub must be machined after assembly to guarantee accurate concentricity and perpendicularity; however, the requirement of accurate machining significantly increases the manufacturing cost of the assembly.
A typical application of this kind of assembly is to mount a flywheel on the crankshaft of an internal combustion engine, for example, for providing air cooling for an engine or for mounting the engine magneto or ignition system. In this application, price may be very important and therefore any manufacturing cost reduction can be significant.
It is therefore a principal object of this invention to provide an apparatus for mounting a rotatable component on a rotating drive shaft using inexpensive manufacturing techniques in which close dimensional tolerances need not be maintained. Other objects of the invention are to provide an apparatus which is simple to manufacture, which may be produced by mass production techniques, which need not be machined, which is reliable, which has a low manufacturing cost, and which will withstand the loads encountered in both light and heavy duty applications.